'General Hospital' execs reveal the secrets behind the secrets

You never know what’s going to happen on “General Hospital” these days – and that’s just how the creative team behind the show prefers it.

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The cast of "General Hospital" at The Paley Center for Media panel "General Hospital: Celebrating 50 years and Looking Forward" in Beverly Hills Friday.

Flanked by 11 of the soap opera’s most popular stars, executive producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati explained at the Paley Media Center in Beverly Hills on Friday during the 50th celebration of the long-running soap that much of the show’s recent success can be attributed to the fact that plot twists and casting coups simply aren’t getting leaked.

How have they managed to keep surprises like the resurrections of characters such as Stavros, Duke and Robin from being revealed ahead of time?

“We have a million of them,” Carlivati continued. “Ethan (Nathan Parsons) was ‘Solomon.’ We couldn’t keep track of them. We even had writers saying, ‘Who is this?’”

The strategy has worked well – perhaps too well.

“We wouldn’t know they were code names so we’d memorize the code names," said Jane Elliot, who plays Tracy Quartermaine. “Even when we called in for our call times (the outgoing message would say), ‘Jane, your call time is this. Bob, your call time is this.’"

One alias actually made it to the air.

The show disguised the return of real-life fitness guru Richard Simmons, who used to teach exercise classes at the Campus Disco back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, by calling him “Ricardo S.”